The Story of a Wizard
by Plotmaster
Summary: The story of how an old character of mine met two of his companions


My name is Bahamut. That is at least the name my foster father gave me after having taken me in.

I am a half-elven wizard. My mother delivered me to Candlekeep in the Sword coast region when I was still an infant.

The monks and my Foster father tutored me in such arts as Reading, Writing, History, Mathematics and all the other areas of knowledge needed to become a Scholar. At the same time I was trained in fighting with such weapons as quarterstaffs and broadswords as well as how to fight unarmed.

I was given the nickname of "Silverscale" at a very young age due to the medallion I was wearing when I first arrived at the keep (The medallion was a scale from a silver dragon fastened onto a chain of finely wrought mithril).

About the time of my sixth year I began to wonder about my family and why I had been abandoned and therefore I began to ask questions to my foster father, the monks and even the guards if they knew anything about my mother or my family but to no avail.

Desolated by my own failure I started to wander around the keep not really looking where I was going. After a while I found myself standing outside the shrine to the quasi-power Savras the all seeing.

Because I was so young my feet were getting tired, so I sat down on the bench. I don't really know how long I sat there dangling my feet above the ground before I felt a hand carefully laying down on my shoulder and an old voice saying "Well young Silverscale, what brings you to this part of the keep?"

I looked up only to see an old man with a neatly trimmed beard dressed in a priest's robe with eyes that were full of understanding and wisdom, the kind of eyes that made you want to tell him about your worries.

I answered his question and told him about my desire to know about my family. "Oh so that is what is bothering you" he said, "I will tell you something. If you come back here once a year and do one days work at the shrine each of these years then I will tell you about your family when you are old enough. How does that sound? ".

I agreed to his bargain and started to walk home because it was getting dark. When I got home I told my foster father about my promise to the priest before sitting down to eat this evening's meal. He then told me that it was all right as long as I kept my promise.

We ate that meal in silence and went to bed.

That year my training began at full intensity in the theoretical fields of study. Even if some of the chores I did in the library and at the shrine were exhausting those were quite happy days.

When I turned twelve my weapon training began with the guards and the monks in the training grounds. My work at the shrine was very simple the first years and consisted mainly of picking up thrash from the streets around the shrine, sweeping the stairs to the shrine and washing the robes of the priests.

As the years passed I learned more and more and my elven features became a bit more prominent. It was sometime during my fifteenth year when I arrived at the shrine for my annual day of work that I saw the high priest standing on the stair obviously waiting for someone.

When he noticed me he started to walk towards me. When we were close enough to talk he told me to follow him. He then led me to the shrine's inner sanctum and bad me sit.

I was then told that they last night had divined the history of my family and that they considered me old enough to know the truth. He then told me of my true family and how I had ended up in the keep.

My mother was a Silver elf from the area around the old elven court. Her family had been one of the noble houses during the time when the Drow destroyed the entire elven court.

Her family escaped and settled down outside of the cursed area in a small farming community. The elder of the family managed to survive and brought his moonblade with him.

The family lived there for a very long time before my mother was born as the heir to the family. Unable to bear the responsibilities of being the heir she drew the moonblade out of it's scabbard in order to become an adventurer.

The blade accepted her as it's wielder and she left without her family's consent. She travelled quite far and ended up in the Sword Coast. There she spent several years helping clear out lairs of kobolds, orcs, goblins and other foul creatures.

Having spent all this time away from home a desire to see her family came upon her and so she started the long journey home.

Having come halfway home, and having spent several months on the road she decided to stay for the night in the city of Arabel in Cormyr.

A young human lord in Arabel had heard rumours of her work for the cause of good and that she was in the city. He therefore sent out an invitation for her to spend a few days at the castle. My mother accepted the invitation and showed up at the castle by nightfall.

During the next three days my mother and the lord fell in love. They had an affair and so three days became a week and a week soon turned into a month. At the end of the first month the lord gave my mother a medallion consisting of a scale from a silver dragon fastened onto a fine mithril chain as a token of his love for her.

By the time of her third month at the castle my mother began to show signs of pregnancy. My father, the lord, then asked the permission of his family to marry my mother. His family refused as he was to be wed to a black-hearted woman from a wealthy family because of a political alliance.

My father's bride to be became infuriated that my mother was pregnant because the child would become the heir to the throne because it would be my father's first child.

She then hired the six best assassins she could find to kill my mother. However my father found out about this and told my mother to run as far as she could. My mother then sat out towards the upper Sword Coast and the allies she had there.

My mother tried for several months to shake the assassins but to no avail. When she reached the area just south of Candlekeep she found a clearing in the woods where she could give birth to her only son.

After giving birth she wrapped me in her cloak and put the medallion around my neck before delivering me to the guard at the gates of Candlekeep. After handing me over to the guard she set out to lose the assassins but in her weakened state the assassins quickly overcame and slew my mother. Her moonblade was taken back to my father's wife and placed on a pedestal in the main hall of the castle.

After learning this I swore revenge upon the one who ordered my mother's death and the reclamation of my mother's blade. After making my oaths I started scouring the library for anything to help me in my quest.

After several days without sleep spending day and night alike looking through books I stumbled upon a book detailing magic and how magic is used. I read through the book with an almost feverish possession and then I fell asleep.

I don't know how long I slept only that I awoke with a firm belief that magic was the key to my revenge. After that I started reading through every book I could find on the subject and asking every mage that came to the keep if they would take me in as their apprentice.

It took me several months to find a mage that would take me in. However he said that he would return when the first snow fell and that I had to wait until then to come with him. I did as he said and waited for his return. When the first snow fell and the mage returned I was ready to leave.

I remember we walked for a few hours before he started talking to me. He asked questions about what I had been taught by my foster father and how life had been in the keep. I answered his questions honestly and the old wizard seemed pleased by my responses.

When the night drew near the wizard told me to gather some wood for a fire. After the fire was and we had eaten some food we started to talk about where we were heading and about my master's past.

My master was reluctant to talk too much about his past but from the little he told me I understood that he was a member of the Harpers and a friend of both Khelben Blackstaff and Elminster the Sage.

He also told me that we were heading towards his tower so that I could begin my studies. It took us about a week to reach his "tower" which was in a forest glade just south of Baldur's gate.

When we reached the clearing I could not see anything and so wondered if my master had lied to me when he told me where the tower was. We stepped out into the centre of the clearing and my master told me to take a few steps back. I did as he told me and he started to utter some magical commands and made some magical gestures with his hands.

When he finished the ground in front of him started to glow and slowly rose out of the ground to become a metal door with a rune on it. He then opened the door to reveal a stairway leading downwards.

We went down the stairs closing the door behind us. As my master went down the stairs I followed as quickly as I could because his staff was the only source of light. At the bottom of the stairs we entered the first chamber in my masters subterranean tower.

From there he showed me where my room was and where the laboratory and library was. The only rules he gave me were not to go below the fourth level, not to go out without letting him know about it and not to enter any rooms marked with the same rune as on the front door.

He then gave me some things I would need during my training and after it. The things he gave me were: An empty spell book, one bottle of normal ink, one bottle of magical ink for me to write spells with, an empty scroll case and a quill pen for writing. In the course of the first month I discovered that I had a talent for understanding and casting fire magic while summoning spells had a tendency to go wrong. I also learned about chemistry and alchemy so that I could create basic components for spells and magical constructs.

During one of my days in the lab while I was working on some components for a project my master was doing, I was creating crystals out of some iron because my master was trying to create a golem out of crystal with the durability of an iron golem. While working with this I had to use magic due to the nature of the components.

I don't know exactly what happened but there was a blinding white light and then everything turned dark. I also remember an immense pain in my eyes and I remember screaming before my master arrived to calm me down and to heal me.

Even after healing me I had to wear a blindfold for three days and not do anything but lie in my room while the blindfold was on. When my master removed the blindfold everything was still a blur but my vision eventually returned and I could see the damage the explosion had done to my eyes.

The accident and healing had caused my pupils to disappear and my eyeballs were almost completely a light shade of grey.

During my apprenticeship I often sent letters to my foster father and my friends in the keep although I didn't receive letters too often. After about half a year with my master a letter arrived for him by pigeon.

Later that day he told me that he had to go away for a while and that if he wasn't back in two months I would have to lock up the tower and head for a mage school in Waterdeep and then he handed me a letter to hand to the principal of the school.

The next morning he left. During my two months of wait I spent many days in the library reading about Waterdeep and how I would have to travel to get there. When the two months came to their sorrow filled ending it was because with their ending came the knowledge that my master was dead. I packed my things and left the next morning heading for Baldur's gate.

When I reached the city many people became suspicious and deliberately stayed away from me because of my eyes. I was also heard whispers of demons behind my back.

After asking many captains who wouldn't take me because of my eyes I finally found one but I had to wait a week for the ship to be ready to depart. So I set out looking for an inn.

The best inn (and tavern) I could find was the Blushing Mermaid inn. I went in and hired a room for a week, dumped my stuff on the bed and took a bath.

After taking a well-needed bath I went down, sat down at a table ordered a glass of wine. While sitting there I noticed a paladin lecturing a half-elven ranger who obviously had a few mugs of ale too much.

I being the kind of person who doesn't like people telling other people what is right and wrong walked over to the paladin and told him to leave the ranger alone. Then the ranger turned to me and told me not to talk that way to his brother.

The paladin then tried to calm down the ranger but it didn't help. The ranger then "attacked" me and we started to fight while the paladin tried to keep us apart. In my anger I hit the paladin and obviously so did the ranger and all three of us started rolling on the floor and knocking over tables. Soon the entire room was involved in the fight.

After a few minutes the Flaming Fist arrived to break up the crowd. After the fight was over the three of us got kicked out of the inn with our stuff. After apologising to the paladin, who introduced himself as Gawyn Strongarm and the ranger as his half-brother Ryu Dragonclaw,

I introduced myself back and helped carry his half-brother, who was passed out, to a new inn and helped him sober up.

Unknowingly I had just met the two people who in the future would be my best friends.


End file.
